Thinking on the simple things


My job is great. I get to work as a nanny for a couple different families (a riveting story on nanny life here!). This past week I watched-- at different times-- a 5 month old, a 10 month old, and a 3 year old.
(The two babes in the picture are my nieces who live back in Indiana, so I don't get to see them often :( But I'll use their faces anyway, cause aren't they the cutest?!)

Anyway, this week something sweet happened with each of the kids I was watching...

You know in movies or TV when there's a cute kid (like Raising Hope or OLD school Full House) who is sitting on someone's lap, and the kid just looks up into their eyes and grins for whatever reason then looks back down? That happened to me! Like, 5 times this week. And it was such a small thing but so sincere and special. It was like the kids really were looking up to me and saying "Miss Kayla, you're funny for singing that song and I love you." I sing to them all the time :)

It got me thinking... I want to be good at noticing the simple things. I want to find joy in little blessings like a baby's acknowledgment of my love and care for them.
But how do we do that well? How do we foster that recognition of small things in our hearts?
I think it starts with a true sense of thankfulness that gets stretched and strengthened and maybe turns into a habit of an attitude of thankfulness.

I have this app I call my "Jesus App." I mainly use it for it's prayer journal and the notifications it sends me to pray for something random on my list. (I highly recommend it!) Every so often I get an alert from my Jesus app telling me to be thankful. The bad part is that usually my response to it is "yeah, yeah thank you God for all my blessings." And that's all. haha. Ok, It's not funny!
I really do want to work on having a heart that will take time to think on the small things and be thankful for them. There are so many things! What are some of yours?

Here are some of mine:
*fresh coffee in the morning
*flowers on the tree outside our front door
*warm, cuddly blankets
*a husband who is also warm and cuddly :)
*friends who make me laugh
*Skype and FaceTime for loved ones who are far away
*having a Trader Joe's in our city!
*the beach at sunset

Now that I'm thinking about it... there's a whole book on this subject! It's called One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voscamp. Obviously, I didn't take what I read to heart. But hey, we're all works in progress, right?


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